Memo To Dodgers Fans: Panicking Is A Perfectly Acceptable Reaction To Especially Bad Baseball – Forbes

The last thing panicking Dodger fans need to hear is that they’re wrong to feel that way.

Fernando Rodney. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

The least helpful thing you can tell a long-suffering Dodgers fan, especially after a particularly painful loss like last night’s, is that they are some sort of sub-human fan for panicking, for expressing their fear either on social media, or for 30 seconds of booing while paying to do so. Not that you were trying to be helpful, columnists of a certain Los Angeles publication or anyone else who may be fortunate enough to feel something other than panic.

So, memo to panicking Dodgers fans: Your club is playing abominable baseball. It may be a blip on the radar or a result in a quick postseason exit. Panicking is a thoroughly normal reaction to what you are witnessing. It is perfectly acceptable to approach the ledge, as long as you don’t take the leap.

If panicking is what you feel then go right ahead and panic. It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to, etc. Go for it. Panic till you’re Dodger Blue in the face. If optimism is what gets you through the night that’s fine too. Better than fine. Knock yourself out.

And memo to every holier-than-thou columnist within ear-shot: Spare me. You don’t know better than I, or any of my compatriots in pain. Just stuff it.

Dave Roberts. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)

In winning the last five contests between the top two teams in the National League West, Arizona has outscored Los Angeles 37-12. The DBacks have won 12 straight and are playing now the way the Dodgers were earlier. The Dodgers have lost 10 of 11.  Perhaps fortunes will turn south for the desert dwellers while L.A. does an ever-timely 180. Maybe those fortunes turn beginning tonight. I have no idea.